Various types of animals (e.g., dogs) often must wear a muzzle to protect other animals and/or people from such muzzle-wearing animal. The muzzle includes a muzzle body that fits around the snout of an animal and a strap or other retention means for securing the muzzle body in place. The muzzle body is configured to prevent or limit separation of the animal's jaws. Furthermore, most muzzles also serve to shroud at least a portion of the animal's teeth from view. In this manner, a muzzle serves to mitigate the possibility that the muzzle-wearing animal will unintentionally bite another animal or a person.
There are instances in which it is desirable for an animal to be able to actually bite a person or create fear in a person that the animal will bite them. For example, when appropriately trained, dogs can be effective in subduing a person, especially those that have isolated themselves in locations that are difficult to access by law enforcement or military personnel. In such instances, it may be advantageous to rely on a dog's ability to bite to flush out the person and/or subduing them. However, civil and criminal lawsuits have been brought against entities (e.g., law enforcement agencies) that have employed dogs (i.e., animals) that have bitten suspects during their apprehension. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, dogs trained to be aggressive have also been known to bite unintended individuals (e.g., innocent bystanders, animal keepers, animal trainers, etc).
Because of the foregoing concerns, animals that have the potential to bite an unintended victim are often fitted with a muzzle. However, in the case where the real or perceived ability for an animal to bite a victim is an intended objective, a muzzle that detracts from this intended objective is undesirable. For example, in the case of a dog used for apprehending criminal suspects, a criminal suspect is less likely to submit to apprehension by a dog that is muzzled and therefore unable to bite the suspect. Therefore, a muzzle that can be released from around an animal's snout in a quick and, preferably, one-handed operation is advantageous and desirable.